1/12/2024 0 Comments Felix candela rib roof![]() The concrete roof is only 5/8 of an inch thick, to allow the measurement of cosmic radiation. It resembles some sort of space tent atop six insect legs. And the catalogue for the Museum of Modern Art's 1955 exhibit "Latin American Architecture Since 1945" argues that Latin America lacked structural timber, produced little structural steel, and manufactured poor-quality brick.Ĭandela's first parabolic shell structure was the Cosmic Rays Laboratory (1951) at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City. The MIT curators point out that his umbrellas were half the price of similar metal structures. His ingenious solution for the Iglesia de la Medalla Milagrosa (1995) in Mexico City was to tip a series of concrete umbrellas on their sides to form the church's soaring nave.Ĭost was one factor that pushed Candela toward concrete. He deployed these umbrellas in groups, in various sizes, to create sheltered markets (a Mexico City ordinance had abolished open street markets) and train stations. His workhorse design was a reinforced concrete "umbrella" resembling a hollow, shallow, upside-down pyramid atop a support column. It's a sharp, succinct introduction to Candela, though the limited explanatory texts may leave those without engineering knowledge feeling adrift.īorn in Madrid, Candela (1910–1997) served on the losing side of the Spanish Civil War before arriving in Mexico as a refugee in 1939, just in time for a building boom. The exhibit, which was organized by the Princeton University Art Museum, includes design drawings, historical photos, notebooks, and about a dozen models that fill one good-sized gallery. But after half a century, the structures are still standing. In comparison, Eero Saarinen's spaceship-like dome for MIT's Kresge Auditorium (1950-'55) in Cambridge - considered the first large-scale concrete-shell building in the US - varies in thickness from 3.5 inches at the apex to 18 inches at the base.Ĭandela's roofs are so thin that the models here sometimes wind up being three times thicker, by scale, than the actual structures. Perhaps what's hardest to believe is that Candela's thin-shell reinforced-concrete roofs are typically just 1.5 inches thick. ![]() Los Manatiales fans four hyperbolic paraboloids - saddle shapes - to span a 106-feet-wide dining area without any support columns. ![]() The curves are so graceful, sexy, and gravity-defying that you don't have to recognize the technical marvels built into them to be swept away.īut as "Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist" at the MIT Museum explains, they are engineering feats. Looking at the wavy roofs of Félix Candela's most iconic structures, like the restaurant Los Manatiales (1958) in Mexico City, I think of pinwheels or the fluttering dress of a spinning dancer. Gropius House | 68 Baker Bridge Road, Lincoln “Félix Candela: Engineer, Builder, Structural Artist” | MIT Museum, 265 Mass Ave, Cambridge | Through September 27 These photographs are listed separately within the inventory.SUBLIME: A series of concrete umbrellas tipped on their sides form the soaring nave of Candela’s Iglesia de la Medalla Milagrosa in Mexico City. A second subseries of photographs relate to the photographs used in the publication by Colin Faber. The photographs too show his work under construction and generally not the completed work. The drawings in the archive document the extent of his participation in the design of the building and are generally not complete construction sets (no electrical, plumbing, etc.). As a result he did not keep files on a project basis but used his correspondence files to track his business. His role in architectural projects focused on the enclosure of the buildings. The organization of Candela's files is unusual and reflects the particular type of architectural practice he developed. As his reputation grew on the global stage, he was brought into projects as a structural consultant. In Mexico he functioned both as designer and "master builder" of complex concrete structures, especially thin concrete shell structures, many times involving double curvature (hyperbolic paraboloid). Candela's practice developed in two ways. ![]()
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